Re: [Rails-devel] 1851 - Operating Company can't sell a share twice in one turn

[brett l. <bre...@gm...>]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 8:10 PM, John David Galt
<jd...@di...> wrote:
> Phil Davies wrote:
>> I don't believe there is a general consensus among all players but I
>> would like to think that the prevailing opinion is that in games where
>> selling a 'block' of shares causes a price drop, you cannot sell 1,
>> then sell 1, then sell 1 without passing in between and allowing other
>> people to react.  If you specifically want to sell to drop the price
>> and are happy to take the hit then you have to sell, let the other
>> players have a turn each to react, then sell again.
>
> Bruce Shelley's errata for 1830 (published in The General) specifically
> allows this "multiple separate sales on same turn" if the player wants to
> do it.  About the only reason for doing so is to go deliberately bankrupt.
>
> I would allow it in most 1830-derived games (those with 2-D stock markets).
> In particular I would allow it in 18AL and 18GA because their rules were
> derived from 1830.
>
> I would not allow it in 1835 (because "drop only once per turn" should take
> precedence in that game) or 1870 (because prices in that game never drop
> until the president of each company sold decides not to price protect).


Other reasons to do it, especially in 1870, also include things like
deliberately avoiding dropping the stock value below a "shelf" or
purposely taking advantage of the price protection mechanics to
manipulate the number of stock purchasing turns a player does or
doesn't get.

In some games I've played, players also want to have exact dollar
amounts in hand for various reasons, but most of the time this is for
'56 or '70, not '30. Whether it's a "good" strategy or not is
debatable, but is also irrelevant when discussing what the software
should do. The software should not judge the validity of a strategy or
prevent you from throwing the game just because taking a certain
action achieves a loss 9 times out of 10. As long as the UI clearly
allows you to sell N number of shares in M number of actions with no
confusion as to what the outcome will be, then each action should be a
separate transaction and trigger a separate evaluation of the rules
for dropping the stock price.


---Brett.